Up to the present time saddle coils for the armature or rotor of an electrical machine have been wound from a wire-shaped conductor with a circular cross-section. For manufacturing technology reasons, however, high temperature superconductors are preferably band-shaped, i.e. they have a pronounced rectangular cross-section. As a rule such band-shaped HTSCs consist of a metallic substrate band, onto which is applied a ceramic HTSC thin layer of e.g. YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO). These HTSCs are also designated as thin layer HTSCs. In contrast to the band-shaped substrate, the ceramic HTSC layer possesses low elasticity; consequently, bending of band-shaped thin layer HTSCs must be minimized, for which reason it is difficult to wind a saddle coil made up from a band-shaped thin layer HTSC onto an armature.
It is generally known art to wind a metallic superconducting racetrack coil into a mould from a winding former between two plane-parallel plates. After the winding process the racetrack coil is firstly cast in the mold and, after hardening, is removed from the mold. This procedure cannot, however, be transferred across to the manufacture of a saddle coil made up from a thin layer HTSC because, during the winding of the winding former, the HTSC layer would be overstretched, i.e., the superconducting thin layer would tear, at least in the upper region of the band, and would at least partially be ruptured.